Important lessons for Dhoni & Co
Having toured Bangladesh with India-A way back in 1995 for the SAARC Asia Cup I could recollect the final played then in Dhaka between India and Pakistan was an intriguing contest with capacity crowds and in the end India emerged victors. But this time it was Pakistan, the under dogs for the final game, coming back strongly and lifting the trophy. It is a new stadium in Mirpur where the final was played but again this time even though the host team disappointed with their performance on the field and did not reach the finals, the atmosphere for the finals was electrifying.
Dhoni's boys have a few lessons to learn before the Asia Cup. Having won the first two games convincingly in the tri-series India committed some blunders to say the least in the batting order specially while chasing a huge score. For one I thought that Yusuf Pathan should have been promoted to No. 3 position especially when Sehwag was out early. Also Dhoni, as he has himself admitted, should have promoted himself in front of Suresh Raina. Raina was looking out of sorts and had difficulty to even rotate strike when batting with Yuvraj and in the end Dhoni ran out of partners.
Rohit Sharma dropping Salman Butt at his individual score of 19 was indeed a costly miss. Catches are dropped in cricket but the way Rohit went for the catch was disappointing. He should have gone with both hands instead of going down lazily on his right side with one hand. These are the basics of cricket and at the highest level you cannot afford to get your basics wrong. Not only Butt made most of the opportunity given to him but also earned the man of the series award and a lovely car to go along with it. Salman Butt just loves this Indian attack and has played some very important knocks when his side needed it most.
Younis Khan who had not scored a single run in the tournament before the finals just showed what a class player he is. His approach right from the first ball was positive and his partnership with Salman Butt paved the way for a huge total for Pakistan. Indian bowling to say the least was disappointing, specially Piyush Chawla, the youngster from Uttar Pradesh going for 85 runs in his allotted ten overs. Chawla will learn a lot of lessons but I thought India missed Harbhajan Singh in this game. Leg spinners are like cottage industry in Pakistan and the Pakistan batsmen read his googly pretty well.
It is a pretty young Indian team and there are a lot of lessons to be learnt from this defeat. Many important tournaments are lined up this season and we all hope Dhoni and his young brigade will only get better from here. With the seniors like Sourav, Dravid not getting the favours from the selectors and Sachin still struggling with his fitness the youngsters have to handle pressure better and win the crunch games.
Total Comments: 17
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Posted : By neethuraj56
dhoni holds the responsibility for india''s loss.....becoz he takes..r given full credit for every player''s good performance than the player themself...poor captaincy...to continue piyush chawla..n not using yusuf pathan..and not giving new ball to irfan...more than pointing out every bowler..ppl should realise dat it was a flat batting track..and our batsmen obviously failed under pressure...dhoni maintains a strike rate of 70...till irfan gets out...!!!!what a hell...!!how can he bat so slowly...when d required rate is nearly 6.5??dhoni...made india loose....
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Posted : By mahesh
well pointed out........dhoni has become a stats man.
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Posted : By Aanand
I think time has come when dhoni should realise the importance of himself and yuvraj to bat high up the order in 50 overs game.i believe that dhoni''s improved as a complete player and he''s proved that as well at the highest level on many occasions.but somewhere down the line i feel that when the team is in some sort of crisis situation he''s reluctant to lead from the front especially when the team bats first and lose some early wickets.I''ve noticed several times that in those situation he''s exposed others and not himself.i don''t really understand the thought process behind that.i firmly believe that yuvraj and dhoni should bat at nos. 3 and 4 respectively and then followed by likes of rohit sharma and others.i also believe that dhoni should consider his decision of leaving sourav out of the side because i feel he''s still fit for that level of cricket.his presence in the team ,his persona and class and experience would certain benefit the team.and also it would give time to players like raina,pathan,Manoj tiwari to prepare themselves of international level of the game because they still lack the right temprament.
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Posted : By shiraz
the main mistake was packing the team with too many batsman,one more bowler may be R.P.Singh/gony would made the difference in the pakistani total(less)So,India would have been chasing easier/lesser total.
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Posted : By Bhaskar
we lost the final because of poor bowling from piyush chawla, irfan pathan, ishant sharma yuvi & sehwag. & obviously rohit sharma (droping catches). Dhoni relied on yusuf pathan & he didnt clicked i think that was crucial part of the game, instead of dhoni innings.
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